1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an optical/electrical composite connector and a method of manufacturing an optical/electrical composite connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical fiber communication is a modern form of telecommunication which uses an optical signal carried on an optical fiber as a channel for signal transmission and is aimed at a high-speed, noise-proof signal transmission with a reduced amount of communication hardware resources. The optical signal is transmitted via the optical fiber, and an optical connector is used in order to connect the optical fiber and a transmitter which transmits the optical signal or to connect the optical fiber and a receiver which receives the optical signal.
On the other hand, when making connection of the optical fiber and either the transmitter or the receiver by the optical connector, there may be some cases in which making connection of electric wiring simultaneously is also required. For example, in a case where power must be supplied to a transmitter or receiver device which transmits or receives the optical signal but does not include a power supply, and in a case where a low-speed electrical signal is transmitted for telecommunication, making the connection of electric wiring simultaneously is required.
In such cases, two kinds of connectors, a connector for optical fiber connection and a connector for electric wiring connection may be used in combination. However, using the two kinds of connectors will raise the cost. Because it is difficult to make the optical fiber connection and the electric wiring connection simultaneously, a complicated form of connection will be required. To eliminate the problem, an optical/electrical composite connector having a composition wherein a connector for optical fiber connection and a connector for electric wiring connection are unified has been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-283967 and Japanese Patent No. 4082440 disclose an optical/electrical composite connector of this type.
However, when a connector for optical fiber connection and a connector for electric wiring connection are unified, the alignment accuracy of electric wiring and the alignment accuracy of optical fiber communication considerably differ from each other, and the number of parts needed is also increased. For this reason, it is difficult to obtain an optical/electrical composite connector which can make the optical fiber connection and the electric wiring connection simultaneously, with low cost.